Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Guito'n took on rapping in the summer of 2008, his first song was titled "Kalashnikov", and it all went to hell from there. The self-taught rapper turned producer and started on his own studio project. Slowly, he started gaining momentum in Tunis's underground rap scene. His bold raps got him in trouble with the local press, and radio but now he is savoring the hit song she released in as trong message to extremists.

Guito'n is unafraid and cuts to the chase in his war against fanatics. there are some really scary faces and prophets of hate that have taken on a new kind of war-- a war against their own people. It's a minority and a vocal one that wants to go to heaven by turning out lives into hell. They beat people up, murder them, lash them in public, blow shit up, gave fiery hateful sermons. And this is not an attack on Islam or Islamists. Just the violent minority that targets civilians. This is an angry humanitarian song. It stands for women rights, the rapper feels liberal but in the face of extremists this is not meant to be an insult.

From Revolutionary Arab Rap Blog

On the other hand, Guito'n is one of Tunisia's influential MCs and his credentials as a revolutionary, a political radical, and as a pious Muslim give him real credibility on this issue. Throughout its history, Arabic hip hop has focused its anger on state violence from Arab regimes or from international actors such as America and Israel rather than on Al Qaeda and similar extremist groups.

The lyrcios for this song are to be found in both Arabic and English here One particular line jumps at me, الجهاد مش في تونس الجهاد في فلسطين "Jihad is in Palestine not in Tunis" which is a common phrase most people use to fend off these crazies.